1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an endoscope apparatus for obtaining an endoscope image of the inside of a body cavity by emitting illumination light thereto, an electronic endoscope is used which includes an image capturing means for capturing an image of an object by using returning light (including fluorescence or the like) obtained after emitting illumination light from a light source device and guiding the light to the inside of the body cavity. Then, the endoscope image is displayed on an observation monitor by performing a signal process on an imaging signal obtained from the image capturing means by using a processor, and an observation position such as an affected portion is observed.
Since the diagnosis and operation using the endoscope apparatus are performed on the basis of the observation image displayed on the observation monitor, it is necessary to faithfully reproduce the color of the observation image in order to perform the accurate diagnosis and operation. Accordingly, in this kind of endoscope apparatus, in order to correct a variation in tone caused by an individual difference such as a difference in sensitivity of a solid-state imaging element, an individual characteristic information is stored in the endoscope or the processor, and the individual characteristic information is read out at an appropriate timing so as to adjust a color (JP-A-2000-342533).
However, although original parameters of the apparatus are measured and stored in advance, the values of the parameters may not be equal to the actual characteristics of the apparatus due to a variation in the passage of time, and the appropriate color adjustment is not necessarily performed in some cases.